Текст книги "Watch Over Me"

Автор книги: Sydney Landon

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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

“Oh, sister.” Crystal winked before walking over to put a hand on her shoulder. “It appears he’s thinking way beyond that. Now, do yourself a favor and lasso that stallion and have the ride of your life.”

Mia gave a thumbs up. “Yep, exactly what she said. You deserve someone who actually focuses all of his attention on your needs, and I think he’s just the man for the job. It didn’t bother him at all that we were standing here. He homed in on you immediately and didn’t let anything distract him from his goal. Tonight, march right over to his place and take him up on his dinner offer.”

“And dessert.” Crystal grinned. “It’s always good to take a gift, so stop and pick up a can of Cool Whip on the way home.”

Gwen laughed with her friends and felt as giddy as a teenager before her first date. Somehow Dominic made her want to be that carefree again. She longed to go back to the days when she hadn’t been disappointed and let down by every man she dated. Why did she always have to be the one in the relationship willing to give everything to make it work while the other person just treaded water until something or someone better came along? For once, she wanted to be number one. It wasn’t as if she needed to be worshipped twenty-four/seven, but dammit, was it too much to ask for a man to just want to make her happy? She wanted to come home at the end of the day and feel like she’d actually been missed while she was away. In the past, she mostly came home to an empty apartment and a lot of excuses.

Mac had been one of her better dating experiences until the last few weeks of their time together. After that, the pattern had become all too familiar—knowing there was something going on, but wanting to believe that it was just her imagination. God, she had grown to hate those alarm bells that inevitably went off in all of her relationships. The warning bells that told her she was hanging on to a sinking ship and no amount of paddling would ever make it right again.

Crystal might be disillusioned with men after divorcing her controlling husband who always wanted her to be perfect, but Gwen had never had that problem. The men she’d dated didn’t seem to care enough to try to control her. That would have involved more time than they were willing to give her. The sad part of it all was that after the experience with Mac, she had concluded that it had to be her. Men fell in love and got married every day; heck, most of her exes married soon after they dumped her. Maybe she was some type of marriage training course. They dated her and got their selfish, jerk days out of their systems, and then went on to settle down and be perfect husbands. Stranger things had happened.

Mia and Crystal left her with her thoughts. She promised that they’d try to have lunch together tomorrow so she could fill them in on her dinner with Dominic. Gwen only hoped that she wasn’t a complete fool for even considering spending more time with him after breaking up so recently with his friend. She winced at the thought because it sounded so cliché. When had her life turned into something from a romance novel?

*   *   *

“Dude, you got laid, didn’t you?” Dominic blinked in surprise at Gage’s accurate assessment. Shit, was it that obvious? He hadn’t said anything even alluding to his night with Gwen so he had no idea how Gage had zeroed in on it within fifteen minutes.

Dominic kept his head down and his eyes fixed on the security feed from the previous evening. Their first task each day was to read reports from their various clients and glance through the footage to ensure nothing was missed. This was something that they could assign to one of their other employees, but when time permitted, he, Gage, and Mac still preferred to keep their hands on the pulse of their business. “Don’t you have something else to do?” he asked Gage when the other man continued to sit and study him.

“Well, of course,” Gage scoffed, “but this is so much better. I mean, I’m pretty damned impressed that you had the energy to go out and hunt a woman after traveling all weekend. I’m just gonna admit that I went home and crashed till this morning. If I’d found a naked woman on my doorstep, I’d have probably sent her on her merry way.”

When his hand slipped on the mouse and it clattered to the floor with what sounded like the force of an atomic bomb, he knew he was screwed. Gage was now in his favorite position of interrogation. His feet were propped on the desk in front of him, and he was leaning back in his chair. “No fucking way. Who did you get a door prize from last night? Crap, was it Kandi?”

Dominic had briefly dated a woman named Kandi a few months ago. When they’d met, she told him that she was a dancer but had been evasive as to where she did that dancing. He’d been surprised that wherever they went, half the men in the place seemed to know her. One night, she had finally confessed that her real name was Mona and her stage name at the strip club where she worked was Kandi. He was far from a prude, but when she wanted to share him with her friends, Bambi and Trixie, he’d called it a day. Yeah, he’d had a threesome back in his wilder, boot camp days, but it wasn’t something he was interested in now. Of course, her strange need to speak in baby talk to his crotch didn’t exactly make her a keeper, either. Gage had never gotten over his rejection of Kandi and her crew. He was sure there had actually been tears in the other man’s eyes when he’d told him. “No, it wasn’t her,” he answered flatly, trying to discourage further questions.

“So, that actually happened? Shit, I was just harassing you, but some chick did show up naked last night? If it wasn’t Kandi, then it must be someone new. A neighbor? I can’t believe you let go of your Gwen crush long enough to sleep with someone else.”

Why, oh why couldn’t he keep his cool around Gage? For the love of God, he served two tours in the Marines and most of them in Afghanistan, where having a poker face kept you alive, and he couldn’t bluff the man sitting next to him. Instead, he was fumbling around with his keyboard and mouse like a virginal schoolgirl being hit on for the first time. He might as well be holding up a sign saying: I HAD SEX WITH GWEN LAST NIGHT, because there was no way Gage was missing his complete loss of cool. “Can we not talk about this,” he said weakly, hoping for mercy, which wasn’t going to happen.

Gage’s chair hit the floor with a heavy thud. “Bro,” he began in a voice heavy with shock, “you slept with Gwen last night, didn’t you? She showed up naked at your door, and you finally did it. How did that happen?”

Dominic was shaking his head before Gage finished his last sentence. “I’m not giving you any details, man, nor am I going to confirm that any of what you just said happened.”

Grinning, Gage said, “You don’t have to confirm it. You started bumbling all over the place when I mentioned the words naked, doorstep, and Gwen. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened. I just can’t fathom why. How does she go from dating your best friend and barely acknowledging your existence to suddenly finding you irresistible? Massive quantities of alcohol?”

Dominic felt a little pang at the thought of Gwen being intoxicated. She’d admitted to having some wine with her friends, but otherwise she seemed to be aware of where she was, who she was with, and she damned sure seemed to know what she wanted. Maybe it had taken a drink to lower her normal reserve and admit that she wanted him. Stone-cold sober, he could admit that he wanted her, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret the events that brought her to him so unexpectedly. Hell, he was pitifully grateful to have finally had a chance with the woman he had spent so long enamored with from afar. He wasn’t even rattled over their condom mishap from the previous night.

Not that he was looking to be a daddy anytime soon, but if it happened, he was all in. Until he knew different, he planned to operate as if Gwen could be pregnant and treat her like a princess. Heck, he would have been happy to do that without a pregnancy scare. He was tired of one-night stands and casual dating. He wanted a woman in his life to love, respect, and lay the world at her feet. Something told him that woman could very well be Gwen, and he was a man who always trusted his intuition. It had kept him in one piece more than once in his life.

He could feel Gage’s eyes boring into him, waiting for an answer to his rash of nosy questions. When he reared back in his seat again, balancing it on its back legs, Dominic did what he and Mac were so fond of when they needed to distract the other man. He reached out, pushed against the back of the chair, and listened to Gage scream like a girl as he tipped over. That never got old and the man never learned. Damn, he loved his job.

Chapter Three

Gwen stood apprehensively outside Dominic’s apartment door, hesitant to knock. He had called her this afternoon just to check on her and to let her know that dinner would be ready at seven. So, here she was feeling like a basket of nervous anxiety at the thought of facing the man that she’d ridden to pleasure countless times not even twenty-four hours ago.

Just when she was pondering whether to make up some excuse, the door swung open and she could only stare at the picture of masculine beauty standing before her. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans that showed off his powerful thighs to perfection. She stood gawking at him, feeling like she was in danger of swallowing her tongue. He gave her a knowing grin and took her hand, pulling her inside. She barely had time to register the delicious smell permeating the apartment before she was pushed against the closed door and engulfed in a kiss that had her eyes rolling back in her head. This was no tentative brush of his lips against hers; he took control and ravished every corner of her mouth. His hands settled on her ass, pulling her against the hard line of his cock and without thought, she locked her arms around his neck and lifted her legs around his waist. God, she wanted nothing more than to feel him moving inside of her again. “Dominic . . .” she moaned, unable to get close enough. What was it about this man that set her on fire so quickly?

“Something’s burning,” he hissed against her neck as he ground his lower body against her.

“It is . . .” she agreed. “Oh, yes . . .”

When she felt him shaking against her, she pulled back enough to see him laughing. “I meant our dinner, baby, but I agree, you are as well, and I promise to put that fire out soon.” He gave her bottom a firm squeeze before unwrapping her legs from his waist and stepping back. Instead of walking off, he took her hand, kissed her knuckles, and pulled her behind him into the kitchen. He waved her toward a seat at the bar before pointing to an array of drinks sitting to the side. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted to drink. I have caffeine-free soda and tea as well as bottled water and there’s milk in the refrigerator. I know a bottle of wine would be nice, but I thought for now we would skip any alcohol . . . until we know.”

Gwen didn’t know whether to be irritated or touched that he was making decisions about her health for her. She decided to let it go, thinking she could probably use a wine-free night after her overconsumption the previous night. Apparently, that left her choices at something without caffeine so she chose water and added a wedge of lime that he had sliced and set out. As if drawn there by some unstoppable force, she found herself staring at his butt as he bent over to remove a skillet from the oven. He seemed to be fascinated by her backside, and she was by his as well. Apparently, they were both ass people. Clearing her throat, she said the first thing that came to mind. “So, how was your day?”

He grinned over his shoulder, before grabbing a knife and cutting into what appeared to be a perfectly cooked steak. “It was good, babe. In fact, it was downright educational.”

Now that she hadn’t been expecting. Curious, she asked, “Educational?”

With a quirk of his perfect lips, he gave her a grin that left her inner sex kitten panting. “Yeah, Gage and I were buzzing through the security feeds this morning and ran across something . . . interesting from the previous evening.”

“Like illegal interesting?” she asked, thinking they had caught someone breaking the law.

“Well, maybe in some states.” Dominic grinned at her, looking downright devilish. He finally took mercy on her when he noticed her confusion. Leaning back against the counter and crossing his ankles, he said, “Well, a guy who works night security at one of our properties decided to take his dinner break a little too far, which was really stupid when he knows how many cameras are on the property. Apparently, his girlfriend dropped by and they got it on in the supply closet. Not a real smart move since there are cameras in there to discourage employees from helping themselves to one too many pens. I have to say, though, if he applied even half of that enthusiasm and energy to his job, the man would own the company by now and I’d be working for him.”

Gwen couldn’t help herself; she started giggling just imagining Dominic’s face when he saw the video footage. “What did you do?” she managed to gasp out between laughs.

Wiggling his brows, he said, “Well, I think Gage disappeared for a while to ponder the situation, but after that we had to call Chad in and let him go.”

“What?” she cried, all laughter gone. “You fired him . . . for having sex on the job? Couldn’t you just give him a warning or something?”

Dominic shrugged halfheartedly, but she could tell that he felt bad about it. “I wish it were that simple, babe, but we’re under strict contracts with our customers. We can’t have stuff like that happening on their properties. While Chad was shopping for office supplies, someone could have broken in, and literally, he would have been caught with his dick in his hand. Trust me, all of our employees are well aware of what they can and cannot do. Your reputation is the one thing in this business that you must guard above all other things.”

“That sounds like a very Marine Corps motto.” She smiled, thinking she quite liked that part of him. Something about those military and ex-military men was so sexy. It was almost like an inborn confidence—no matter what life tossed their way, they could handle it. Dominic, like Mac, was all man. He could cook dinner for her and bring her coffee, but there was never any doubt as to his masculinity.

“Maybe,” Dominic agreed, “but I would like to think I’d have known the importance of my good name even without Uncle Sam drilling it into me. Anyway, Gage insisted on taking him out for a drink afterward to soften the blow.”

“Really?” Gwen asked, impressed. At least that was something for poor Chad.

“Yep, of course, I think he just wanted his autograph or something. The guy was quite . . . creative and the camera loved him.”

“Oh God,” Gwen choked, before picking up the dish towel lying in front of her and throwing it at Dominic. “You’re so bad.”

He laughed as he plated their meal. Her mouth was watering as he set a large steak with a twice-baked potato down in front of her. “I hope you’re hungry.” Her stomach growled on cue, causing her to blush.

Gwen had always felt self-conscious when eating in front of men, especially someone she was romantically interested in. She wasn’t fat, but she was healthy and had a slightly bigger butt than most women her size. No matter how many diets she tried, that part of her anatomy never seemed to get any smaller, and if she lost weight, it just made it appear bigger than the rest of her. She had dated a guy in college who had cheated on her and had blamed it on the fact that he just wasn’t attracted to her because of her weight. Even though she felt like it was just an excuse, the jerk had scarred her for life. When Mac had skirted having sex with her, she had wondered if maybe he felt that way as well. With Dominic, though, she had felt like he loved her body. His hands had been constantly touching her as if she were perfect and he couldn’t get enough. “This looks great.” She smiled shyly, as she cut off a small piece of the meat. She found herself moaning in appreciation when the steak literally melted on her tongue; it was so tender.

When he was suddenly quiet, Gwen looked over to find his fork suspended in midair. She looked down at her plate, wishing she’d managed to control herself. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to call attention to herself while she was eating. When she glanced back up and he was still staring, she dropped her fork, suddenly having no appetite.

“You have no idea how badly I want to swipe everything off this counter and fuck you on it.”

Startled at his quiet declaration, Gwen’s head jerked up to find his eyes smoldering and locked on to hers. “Wh-what?”

“When you drew that fork slowly out of your mouth, moaning in bliss, I could picture you sucking me off in exactly the same way. We need to finish here because I’m not gonna last much longer. If you lick that fork again, I’m going to have your panties around your ankles in two seconds flat.”

Her breath hitched in her throat and her nipples fought to escape the confines of her bra at his words. She was ready to stand up and shove everything out of the way herself. She didn’t think he’d have to bother with removing her panties, though, because they were fast becoming a puddle beneath her. Dominic made a gesture with his fork for her to continue eating and she did, almost in autopilot. She couldn’t look away from his big hands as he cut his steak with neat precision. She needed him to touch her now. Her pride was completely out the window and for the second night in a row, she was going to initiate sex with him. Who was she and where had boring Gwen Day gone?

Dropping her fork and pushing her plate aside, she stood and stepped over to him. Without saying a word, he put his fork down and turned until she was standing between his spread thighs. “I want you,” she admitted huskily.

He settled his hands on her waist and pulled her closer. “How do you want it, babe?” he asked as he stared into her eyes.

She shocked herself when she admitted, “I want you in my mouth.” He groaned in reply, before taking one of her hands and lowering it to the front of his jeans. Her fingers fumbled as she unbuttoned, then gingerly slid the zipper past his erection. He had on a pair of sexy blue boxer briefs with a black waistband that said Ralph Lauren. Somehow, she’d pictured Dominic as more of a Hanes man, so this was almost like a naughty surprise.

He raised his hips slightly while she worked the fabric down until his cock sprang free. Gwen hadn’t been sure how this position would work with him still sitting on a barstool and her standing, but when he moved his hips forward slightly, she found that it worked . . . quite well for her. Things had been so rushed and out of control the previous night that she hadn’t taken time to appreciate Dominic’s large asset. She’d never really found a man’s penis beautiful, but his looked like a work of art. As she ran her palm up and down his length, she marveled that something so hard could also be so velvety smooth. She smeared the moisture gathering at the tip around the thick head and felt him twitch within her hold. “This is going to be embarrassing if I don’t even make it until I reach your mouth,” Dominic groaned as she pumped him in her hand.

His words jolted her into action, and without thinking, she lowered her mouth and attempted to take his whole length. He was only halfway in, and she was in danger of gagging as his tip pushed against her throat. She pulled back slightly until she was comfortable with his presence. Dominic laced his hands through her hair and helped her establish a rhythm. He was careful not to push too far, leaving it to her to deepen the penetration as she wanted.

Gwen had never been a big fan of this part of a sexual relationship. She knew that it was something that men enjoyed, but it wasn’t something that turned her on . . . until now. Dominic’s moans of pleasure were like a direct zap to her sex. Unbelievably, she was close to orgasming just from sucking his cock. She knew that it would take only a couple of swipes against her throbbing clit to push her over the edge. When he suddenly shouted a warning that he was close, instead of pulling back like she would have in the past, she continued to suck him, savoring his essence as he spurted over and over down the back of her throat. She greedily licked the last drop of moisture from the end of his cock before releasing him with an, “Mmmm, you taste good.”

Things were a whirlwind after that. Before she could even register that he had moved, she was splayed on a kitchen counter with her legs over his shoulders. She didn’t even recall losing her pants or panties. She was coherent enough to register the sound of the buttons from her blouse hitting the floor as Dominic jerked it apart. Left with only her bra, she couldn’t do much more than gape at him in surprise when he pulled the material on either side of the clasp until it ripped causing her breasts to spill free. “Sorry, baby. I’ll buy you another.”

He used one hand to pinch her sensitive nipples while he sucked and tongued every inch of her dripping sex. As her orgasm was thundering through her body, she yelled, “Screw the clothes!” Dominic chuckled against her neck as he sucked the smooth skin there. He pulled her from the counter and set her on her feet. She wanted to dissolve into a post-coital coma until she noticed that he was growing hard again. Her body, which had seemed completely sated only seconds before, was now humming with renewed interest.

Dominic pulled her closer as he filled his hands with her ass. “I want to take you from behind,” he rasped, lightly squeezing her cheeks.

Gwen froze for a moment, remembering an ex-boyfriend who had been obsessed with deflowering her back door. She wasn’t a prude, but she wasn’t ready to go there . . . not to mention, he was so big. She’d never be the same again after something like that. “Er . . . I’ve never done that . . . and I just . . . I mean, I think we should keep things—in the front area, okay?”

“The front area?” Dominic repeated, sounding adorably baffled. “I bent you over a chair last night. Did you not like it or do you just have a thing for face-to-face action? I can work with either, baby, but I love looking at your ass.”

“You mean just looking, right?” she asked warily.

Dominic’s mouth turned up, displaying a set of adorable dimples that had her completely distracted. “Well, I’d like to touch it, maybe even smack it if you’re a bad girl. Oh, and definitely squeeze it. You have an epic ass, babe, and I can’t keep my hands off it. Which part don’t you want me to . . . ?” When her face flamed red, he halted in the middle of his sentence before bursting into laughter. “You thought I was talking about anal, didn’t you?”

“Oh my God, this is so embarrassing,” Gwen whispered as she turned to hide her face. “What was I supposed to think, though?”

“It’s okay if you’re into kink, babe; I’ll try to accommodate you. I hadn’t been thinking of that myself, but I’m game if that’s what you really have your heart set on.”

Gwen flew around at his matter-of-fact statement. She knew her mouth was probably flapping like crazy as she sputtered, “No! That’s not– I wasn’t asking for– I thought you– Oh, shut up!” He had finally given up trying to look serious as she struggled to get herself out of the hole her big mouth had dug. He pulled her into his arms and laughed softly against the top of her head.

“You are so fucking adorable when you’re all worked up.” She was getting ready to elbow him in the ribs when she felt his cock nudging against her butt. She thought he deserved an award for staying hard through their whole awkward conversation. As if to emphasize the fact that he was still eager and ready, he pushed his hips against her teasingly. “Just an FYI, I’m going to take a condom from my wallet, bend you over right where you’re standing and put my cock in your preferred ‘front area.’ Do you have any problems with that plan?”

“No,” she whimpered with need as he grabbed a condom and quickly sheathed himself. He put his hand on the small of her back, bending her forward until she grabbed the foothold of a barstool to steady herself.

“Just to be clear,” he said huskily, “this is my target.” With that, he circled a finger around her wet slit, before burying it inside of her. She jerked forward, moaning embarrassingly loud.

“That’s it,” she panted. He pushed his finger in and out a few more times before removing it. A protest was forming on her lips when she felt the big head of his cock lining up with her slick opening. She locked her arms, preparing for his thrust. He took her hips in his hands before burying his shaft deep inside of her. “Awww, yes!” she shouted as he stroked across her clit before rubbing against her G-spot. She wasn’t sure if she was light-headed from her vertical position or the fact that her body was nothing but one big mass of arousal.

When she began pushing her hips back to meet his driving thrusts, he moaned, “Damn, Gwen, you feel so good. You’re taking everything I give you and coming after more. Fuck!” The more he talked, the hotter she became. Hearing him talk about her body so intimately was sexier than she could have ever imagined. She felt like a supermodel as he praised her. She had never been happier to have a big backside because Dominic couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of it. In what was probably one of the most vocal sexual performances of her life, Gwen threw her head back and screamed like a banshee when her orgasm hit. Dominic thrust a couple more times and shouted his release as he continued to glide in and out of her, bringing them both down slowly. She could only imagine what his neighbors must be thinking. How thick could these apartment walls be?

Dominic pulled out of her and disposed of his condom, all the while keeping one hand on her waist. “I don’t think I can walk,” she said as she slowly straightened, attempting to work the kinks from her back. When he suddenly swung her up into his arms, she was speechless for a moment before stuttering out, “Dom, put me down. I’m too heavy.” Way to bring that to his attention, you idiot!

He shook his head as he looked down at her. “You’re not even remotely heavy, babe. I’m going to run us both a bath so we can relax. How does that sound?” Now he was truly something straight out of a romance novel. He cooked dinner, gave her multiple orgasms, said she was skinny—well, close enough—and now was carrying her to the bath. How was this man still single? Had no other woman discovered the hidden gem that was Dominic Brady? What was she missing? There had to be something wrong with him. Maybe he hogged the covers, farted in bed, and watched sports obsessively. Of course, she’d probably even be willing to overlook all of that. Just his sexual skills alone were worth a lot. Heck, if he took out the garbage and put the seat down on the toilet, she would marry him in a minute.

“That sounds amazing,” she murmured as he carried her effortlessly into the bedroom and sat her gently on the edge of the bed while he continued into the bathroom. She heard him whistling under his breath as he started the bathwater. She couldn’t resist getting to her feet and edging toward the open door to watch him. Oh myyyy, his firm ass was bent over the bathtub as he poured in something that looked like bath salts. He lowered his hand to check the water temperature and then turned to grab two towels from the cabinet behind him. When he also pulled out some candles and a lighter, she felt herself swoon until a thought occurred to her. There was no way he had known they would end up in the bath tonight. So, he was lighting another’s woman’s candles for her. Okay, maybe it was unreasonable to think that, but somehow it just felt wrong.

She had no idea that she had been scowling at the offending wax until he cleared his throat and held the fat candle up for her to see. “These are new, babe. My ever-hopeful and completely inappropriate sister left them the last time she visited. She claimed that if I were more romantic, I might find ‘the one.’ I tossed them in here so I would be prepared for the next power outage and that’s where they’ve been until now.” Suddenly, he looked achingly shy as he asked, “Do you like stuff like this? If you don’t, I can put them back.”

Gwen felt like a bitch as he looked away nervously. What was wrong with her? Wasn’t she always complaining about the men that she dated never putting her first or thinking of her needs? And here was Dominic, trying to do something sweet to please her. Only how had she handled it? Practically reduced him to vapors with the glare she had leveled on him. She was so used to being the one trying to make an impression that she didn’t know how to handle it when the other party was actually making an effort.

She reached him in a couple of quick strides, wrapping her arms around his taut middle. Wow, this night was just full of surprises. She and Dominic were both still nude and she was comfortable with that as she hugged him. Normally, she would never have made it this long without at least putting a shirt on. With him, though, things were just easy. It was as if they’d known each other intimately for far longer than two days. “I love candles,” she whispered against his chest. “I think it’s a great idea.”

Gwen felt him relax against her as he ran a hand up and down her back soothingly. “Good, I’m glad.” They stood there locked together for another few moments until he stepped away to turn the water in the big Jacuzzi tub off. He tested the temperature again before reaching for her hand and pulling her gently forward. She bit off a moan as she settled back into the warm, scented water. She closed her eyes in bliss, almost forgetting where she was until she felt a tug on her hair. “Mind if I join you?” Dominic quirked, smiling down at her indulgently.